


softly, softly

by ignitesthestars



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Pre-Relationship, Quiet, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 17:22:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13104927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ignitesthestars/pseuds/ignitesthestars
Summary: “You’re awfully sentimental for someone who grew up without attachments.”It’s almost worse that she doesn’t startle. Because it means that some part of her is always ready for him to return to her, crowding into the space at the foot of her mattress. He sits cross-legged and his knees nearly touch the walls as she flicks a finger to slide the door shut without looking up from her book.





	softly, softly

After having the remnants of the Resistance nearly bursting out the _Falcon’s_ seams, the old ship feels strangely empty as Rey wanders through it. She’s not completely alone - Finn’s practicing Captaining under Poe’s watchful eye and Rose is buried in some part of the ship’s ancient tech with Chewie. It’s not clear who’s supervising who, but at least they seem to be getting along.

There aren’t rooms on board so much as compartments - little niches hidden away where you least expect, enough room for a mattress or a bunk bed. Rey had claimed one as her own near the heart of the ship,no bigger or fancier than any of the others. She just liked to hear the hum (and occasional croak) of the old girl working, the ceaseless motion of something that had almost as much life (and far more history) as she did.

Less lives with her here than she ever had on Jakku, but she’s never felt more at home. When she clambers onto her bed, there’s no worry in the back of her mind that anyone is going to take it away. No doubt that this is where she belongs. 

“You’re awfully sentimental for someone who grew up without attachments.”

It’s almost worse that she doesn’t startle. Because it means that some part of her is always ready for him to return to her, crowding into the space at the foot of her mattress. He sits cross-legged and his knees nearly touch the walls as she flicks a finger to slide the door shut without looking up from her book.

“Hello, Ben.” She punctuates this with a flick of her page. She’ll have to go back and read it later, but it feels appropriately dismissive, even as some knot at the nape of her neck starts to unwind. “Or do you prefer Supreme Leader these days?”

He says nothing because neither of them know who he is to her these days. She calls him Ben to needle him, or because she cradles a flame of hope even after Crait, or because Kylo Ren is a stupid name anyway and she refuses to indulge it.

“Did you ever read these?” she asks instead, gesturing with the book in her hands. His eyes flicker from her face almost reluctantly, boomeranging back after a bare second.

“What use would I have for the ramblings of people long dead? The only thing that makes those texts of any significance is other Jedi, and they are all gone.”

“‘It’s time for the Jedi to end’. Funny how you and your uncle reached the same conclusion, sort off.”

“I am _nothing like_ \--”

“Oh, settle down,” she grumbles. “It’s late and I’m not arguing philosophy with you. I just think that, you know, before I make any decisions about what should be ending or not, I should do some research.”

“I can tell you everything you need to know.”

“I think you might be biased.”

Rey focusses so intently on the words in front of her that they start to blur a little. It’s a treatise on attachments, which is probably what drew Ben here in the first place. She thinks of Finn as she reads, Leia and Luke and Chewie and Han and every other friend she’s made in the Resistance, and disagrees with every word the book has to say about holding yourself separate from other people.

Ben makes a sound in the back of his throat, and she can admit that maybe there’s a point to be made there. She snaps the book shut with a little too much force for how old it is, setting to the side

“That’s it?” he prompts. “No trying to convince me? No trying to drag me back home?”

She lifts a single shoulder in a shrug. “If you were convincible, I think you would have changed your mind by now. I’ve got better things to do than chase you around the galaxy, begging you to have a conscience.”

He sits with that for long enough that she thinks he may just disappear with it stuck in his craw. He’s got a better handle on the bond than she does, probably because he’s the one exercising it all the time. Funnily enough, she hasn’t been all that eager to jump back into his space. 

“If you thought I wasn’t,” he says finally, “you would have killed me on the _Supremacy_.”

The urge to look away claws at her chest, but that’s the difference between the two of them. Rey isn’t ruled by her urges, so she meets the weight of his gaze and holds underneath it. He’s looking at her with that same quiet desperation that had made her wonder if he could be saved, and a part of her wants to hate him for proving her wrong. For failing so egregiously, and leaving the burden of a galaxy on her shoulders.

Rey lets her head tip back against the wall, feeling the _Falcon_ humming at her through the durasteel. “I guess we both have to live with what that means.”

He should leave. She should make him go.

They stay there like that all night.


End file.
